At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash

3.7 + A fun palate cleanser. Cash sounds loose and intimate, cracking jokes with the audience often at the expense of the prison administration. June Carter sounds sassy on "Jackson." Apparently the crowd noises were added in post-production (Folsom prison required silence of the inmates), which was a huge letdown when I first learned of it. But now I think the crowd sounds are so vital to the record that I can no longer imagine it without the audience as a central performer.

4